Daniel Kawczynski – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Kawczynski on 2016-10-07.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to encourage the exploration of natural gas in the North Sea.

Jane Ellison

To support exploration activity, the Government has significantly cut tax rates for the oil and gas sector and introduced the Investment and Cluster Area Allowances to reduce the effective rate of tax paid by producers. Lower tax rates will encourage exploration by improving the economics of new discoveries.

Over the last two years the Government has also funded a £40 million programme of seismic surveys. This will boost offshore exploration in under-explored areas of the UK Continental Shelf.